About
Key Fm, Tempo 115, 3/4 time
11/30/80, College Station
Written after a “date” with a popular girl in high school who was way above my pay grade and that didn’t go well. She was a Mean Girl, on the drill team, and I was obsessed with her. During my Junior year I was beginning to feel more comfortable with my persona as a budding Gonzo Journalist and Rock Star, as I began strutting my literary stuff in the school newspaper, and me and some guys butchered a few songs on stage at the annual talent show. With these notches on my belt, I somehow gathered up the courage to ask the object of my adolescent desires out to dinner. We went to some place I couldn’t afford, and spent an hour or so avoiding eye contact and saying next to nothing. When I got back to the house, I composed these words. 40+ years later, I can still feel the pain I experienced that night, and (believe or not) I remember exactly what she wore (the sweater was purple, and low cut).
Musically, this song was the first one I composed using 3/4 time. The keyboards, drums, and bass were recorded in Garageband and then imported into Logic, where I embellished with strings, woodwinds, and other ear candy. I really like the flow on this, and how the music and the words weave around each other. Maybe not a top 40 hit, but a song I can listen to and enjoy again and again, always finding something new in it. And those words – I don’t think I’m capable of a better opening line than,
The Knight gazes at his Queen
And probes her starry eyes
That appear so small, so far away,
So preoccupied